Think About It

          I am not sure when the problem began, but have you noticed how often Christians perceive our approval rating as an accurate measure of how things are going?  There is a philosophy being toss around out there that if we get enough people to think the same way we think that Christianity will return to prominence.  Often, this concept is built on a belief that if we can get the right party in power ... or we can get enough of the cool influential people to think like we do ... or if we could just make our doctrine relevant, the world will make a switch and we will have a Christian majority.  In essence, if we can just tip the scales in our direction, there would be a surge of discipleship.  While I applaud a desire to want to grow and hope for an international spiritual resurgence, we need to remember that this is not what has been promised to the Christian movement.  Jesus realized His ministry was demanding and would not necess...

          I don’t always forward things I read on social media, but I saw something that I really liked last week.  It was a quote attributed to the 20 th Century minister, Peter Marshall, who observed, “ May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.”.  As I looked at this statement it appealed to me from several angles.  First, when we think of freedom merely as a license to do what we choose to do, we set ourselves on a course of conflict with the people around us.  If we were all to embrace this libertine lifestyle it won’t take long before we started bumping into each other’s freedoms.  When our motto is summarized in the statement, “because I want to”, we are bound to end up battered and bruised.  The second part of his statement offers us a new way to look at freedom – a chance to do good by others.  When we are freed from the confines of a flawed system (eithe...

          Loretta Webb was born in a poor, working class family in Kentucky in 1932.  I am sure that many of her contemporaries lived out their life-cycle not far from their home, but Loretta had a special gift – her ability to write and sing country music.  By the 1960s Loretta Lynn, the coal miner’s daughter, was all but a household name.  Loretta’s signature song, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” was autobiographic and translated into smash movie.  Many of us “boomers” are familiar with her life, time and music; but, as I listened to song recently I was struck by one of the verses, “ Daddy loved and raised eight kids on a miner's pay.  Mommy scrubbed our clothes on a washboard ever' day.  Why I've seen her fingers bleed.  To complain, there was no need.  She'd smile in mommy's understanding way.”  In addition to describing how she lived, her lyrics tell us about how the Webbs were raised.  They were taught to find con...

                    At the beginning of last week I developed a bit of a stomach bug.   It really didn’t cause me much of an issue, but I didn’t really feel that great nor was I too excited about eating.   As the week progressed I started feeling better and by the time Thursday rolled around, I was ready for the day’s activities.   In fact, there was a bonus in not feeling great earlier in the week, when Thanksgiving came I wasn’t too concerned about feeling stuffed before enjoying the meal!             In all reality last week’s episode had an impact on me.   The last time I had these symptoms was prior to being hospitalized in May.   I was never really concerned that last week’s symptoms would produce the same result, but it did remind me that I hadn’t been doing everything I should have been doing for good heart health.    I ca...

          Booker T. Washington was born in Virginia during the waning years of American slavery.   Washington would have been a small child when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, but he came of age during the post-slavery era of the South.   While his social and political theories were not embraced by everyone (even his own contemporaries) he became a leader in education and economic reform.   I recently came across an interesting quote that transcends his life and times of the early 20 th Century, “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.”.   I am somewhat leery in quoting this statement because of the potential backlash about the times in which it was written; however, I think its value transcends the potential criticism.   I believe that this observation is just as important in the 21 st Century as it was 100 years ago.   Societies ha...

          I really enjoy Thanksgiving – I mean how can you go wrong with food, friends, food, family, food, football and food?  It doesn’t get much better than that!            In reality, there is another reason I like Thanksgiving and it has nothing to do with the meal(s).  What emotion is more deserving to be celebrated than the decision to give thanks?  We spend so much of our lives wanting more and hoping for things we don’t have, so when we get the chance to reverse that trend and focus on being appreciative, we should not only practice it, we should enjoy it!            There is yet another reason I like this day – it is one of the few days of the year when religion gets to come into the spotlight.  I realize that Thanksgiving is not traditionally listed as a “religious holiday”, but think about it ... it is designed to be a time wh...

          The other day I got to thinking about the number of people I have known who stepped away from a position, then complained about how their replacement did (or didn’t do) their job.  Unfortunately (for my ego), I got to thinking about the number of times I have quit a job or an organization, then negatively critiqued my replacement.  As I reflected on this all-too-human response, I came up with two thoughts.  First, if I am fussing about how someone is doing the job I left, why did I leave that job in the first place?  If I thought I could do it better, why didn’t I stick it out and make it all it could have been under my leadership?  When I leave – especially if I leave someone in a lurch – I forfeit my right to complain.  My second thought may have been a bit more painful because it reminded me of a delinquency in my life.  If I leave a position and there is no one in the wings to replace me, whose fault is that?...